Typical portable humidifiers employ an absorbent pad that is fashioned into a belt that rides on a drum or a pair of rollers. The pad is wetted by cycling it through a water reservoir. A fan forces room air through the pad, thereby evaporating moisture for distribution into the room. Other humidifiers have a stationary pad and a pump for spreading water onto the pad. A variety of less common types of humidifiers also exist and most, as do the porous pad type, function well when they are clean.
Keeping them clean, however, is a major problem with humidifiers. Nearly all types need to be cleaned frequently (every week or two for some types) and the process is often burdensome and tedious. Minerals, previously dissolved in the water, can clog working parts, and by-products from microbes can cause offensive odors. In humidifiers with porous pads, residue and microbial activity can build up in the pores to reduce efficiency and increase offensive odors. The pads must be disengaged and the residue removed, which is generally not an easy task. Eventual replacement of the pads is also necessary. Most submerged components must also be cleaned often. Chemical additives to the reservoir water may help, but are not a panacea.
An advantage of this invention is that it obviates the need for evaporation pads and the like, thereby eliminating an important source of offensive odors.
Another advantage of this invention is that it provides a humidifier with high functional performance while substantially reducing typical humidifier maintenance time. It includes a bubble generator which produces myriad erupting bubbles presenting myriad water surfaces for evaporation. Periodic replacement of a removable portion of the bubble generator is much simpler than the effort generally required for removal and replacement of evaporation pads. Further, there is little cleaning required since there is minimal submerged material.
Another advantage is that the replaceable portion of the bubble generator is small enough to fit in the palm of a hand. Therefore, it takes up many times less storage or shelf space at a wholesale or retail store than evaporation pads do.
Since the replaceable portion of the bubble generator can be be produced from a relatively small amount of molded plastic and standard wire cloth, replacement cost is very competitive with the cost of evaporation pads and the like.
Another advantage of this invention is that it can be produced at low cost.